This paper presents a novel ironmaking technology using biomass and iron oxide. The biomass instead of coke was mixed together with iron ore powder, water, limestone and bentonite for the production of Fe2O3 briquettes. The sintering process and direct reduction of briquettes were simultaneously conducted in the same reactor. Briquettes with different composition were isothermally reduced directly to metallic iron with H-2-CO mixtures at different temperatures (ranging from 900 to 1100 degrees C) and reaction time (30-60 min) to investigate the effects of briquettes composition, reduction temperature, reaction time and reducing gas composition on the quality of metallic iron. The results show that the increase of reduction temperature, reaction time and H-2 content of the reducing gas are favorable for the quality of pig iron, within the experimental conditions. At a reduction temperature of 1100 degrees C and reaction time of 60 min, the Fe content in product achieves the maximum 94.7%. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.